Eric Wicklund is the Editor of mHealthNews. He covers all clinical and nonclinical mobile healthcare news.

New bill breaks down telehealth barriers

Frank Pallone, D-N.J.

"The benefits of telemedicine are limited by an antiquated system of licensure laws.'

WASHINGTON | September 13, 2013

A bill introduced in Congress this week would enable healthcare providers to treat Medicare patients in other states via telemedicine without needing different licenses for each state.

The "TELEmedicine for MEDicare Act", or HR 3077, was introduced Sept. 10 in the House by Reps. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and Frank Pallone, D-N.J. Nicknamed the TELE-MED Act, it seeks to update current licensure laws "to account for rapid technological advances in medicine," according to its sponsors.

“By reducing bureaucratic and legal barriers between Medicare patients and their doctors, it expands medical access and choice for America’s seniors and the disabled,” Nunes said in a statement.

Among the organizations lining up to support the bill is the American Telemedicine Association, which has long championed the cause for improving licensure requirements in telemedicine.

"We urge Congress to expand this licensure model for telemedicine to other federal agencies and health benefit programs," said Jonathan Linkous, the ATA's chief executive officer, in a Sept. 12 press release. "Patients should all be able to receive the best and most convenient care available, regardless of geographic location."

Linkous said the bill follows in the footsteps of the Service Members Telemedicine & E-Health Portability Act, or H.R. 1832, enacted in 2011, which allows the Department of Defense to enable credentialed healthcare professionals to treat veterans across state lines without the need for additional licenses; and the Veterans E-Health and Telemedicine Support Act, or H.R. 2001, introduced this year, which would provide a similar exemption for Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare providers.

“Technology makes it increasingly easy for patients to receive the 21st Century care they need and want, wherever the physician or other professional is located,” Linkous said.

The bill also received support from the Health IT Now coalition. Joel White, the coalition's executive director, called it essential to promoting telemedicine as a means of lowering healthcare costs and improving clinical outcomes.

“Currently, the benefits of telemedicine are limited by an antiquated system of licensure laws that hinders the practice of medicine across state lines,” White said in a press release. “That means that qualified and credentialed physicians must jump through hoops and hurdles before they can treat patients remotely. Limiting the number of doctors available in any one state to treat Medicare beneficiaries – who, due to disease, transportation or mobility issues, are often not able to travel long distances to receive the care they need – not only decreases access to care, but also increases costs and harms patient outcomes.”

“Congress has already had success in implementing a national telemedicine framework for members of the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration," he added. "This Nunes-Pallone bill does the same thing for Medicare beneficiaries, the number of whom is expected to rise to 81 million by 2030. The Health IT Now Coalition hopes Congress will work together to enact the TELE-MED Act into law so that seniors, the disabled, and taxpayers can all benefit from better healthcare at lower costs.”

Learn how the University of Pennsylvania’s Health System transformed its information system via digitization. What started as an intention to reduce the paper load generated by a single patient visit, turned into a comprehensive overhaul of the hospital’s medical and financial records. The end result? Dramatically increased efficiencies across all departments. Learn More

Healthcare financial accounts are becoming the first line in consumer-driven healthcare interaction. Health plans that don't offer health spending accounts are missing out on the critical early consumer interaction that drives loyalty. Learn about key trends and important changes in health spending accounts and health plan administration, and find out how health plans and TPAs scope and implement the right solutions for themselves and their customers. Learn More

The explosion of mobile health and advances in medical technology has been accompanied by a parallel increase in acute-care complexity and coordination challenges. Today, test results, x-rays and even snapshots of wounds can be shared among clinicians in less time than it takes to go from one hospital floor to another, and patients are being treated by an increasing array of specialists – thanks to the flexibility of mobile health technology. Learn More

Health information exchanges (HIEs) have tremendous potential value for measuring population health and promoting health improvement. Hixny, a RHIO with high HIE adoption, School of Public Health, University at Albany and the New York State Department of Health conducted a pilot project to evaluate this potential for achieving goals for hypertension control in the Million Hearts Initiative. This presentation will report on results. Learn More

Memorial Hermann's expansion into the health insurance business is a key component to realizing its new vision to "advance health." Hear how this health system overcame challenges and took advantage of opportunities on its journey to develop value-added health plans and employer solutions. Learn More

Join Hospital Physician Partners’ CIO, Data Architect, and Senior BI Analyst as they take you through a journey of their rapid analytics deployment on the Microsoft BI Platform with Pyramid Analytics, allowing them to turn "mountains of data" into "insights." Additionally, HPP implemented the solution so that the new insights would be delivered in an easy-to-use, and intuitive self-service framework for its business and care delivery personnel. Learn More

The point-of-care technology plays pivotal role in improving care, reducing cost and enhancing patient experience, such as eliminating unnecessary steps and re-work, and offloading selected testing and self-monitoring capabilities to home setting for patient self-management. This session provides an overview of trends and best practices in point-of-care technology, as well as challenges in applying point-of-care technology. Learn More

Video

2015 H.I.T. Men & Women Awards

The top three vote-getters across three categories will be honored at the H.I.T. Men & Women ceremony, sponsored by awards co-founder Emids, during the 2015 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition at McCormick Place in Chicago.

As Joseph Kvedar, MD, has traveled the road of adoption for connected health for two decades, he has paid attention to the major sign posts -- defining moments when the dialogue changes in such a way that the whole organizational strategy changes with it. More

Until recently, technology-enabled efforts to improve population health relied heavily on the use of claims data alone. While there is evidence this approach has merit, there is also a new opportunity to take these efforts to the next level. More

Some pundits have suggested that ONC step aside and return all aspects of health IT policy and technology to the private sector. Others have suggested top-down command and control, including centralized governance to ensure interoperability. More

Hospitals and physician practices have been slow to adopt online platforms that allow them to connect with patients at home or on their mobile devices. However, patients will increasingly demand online connections with their providers. More